Category: Politics

Nine & One-Half

THE TWELVE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS DONALD TRUMP HAS TAUGHT ME (Thing No. 9):

He gave us a real time demonstration of the fragility of our political system.

Many Americans who were born here and came of age here view our democratic system as a sturdy, durable frame around the good life — where communication is open, we have freedom, and we have a voice in the choices made on behalf of our whole society. The Civil War seems like an odd and archaic thing of the past. Besides, the slavery issue has been settled, at least in the crudest sense of human chattel.

Other Americans who came here more recently as immigrants have witnessed the fragility of government. They have seen governments fall, often with terrible consequences for the people. That’s why they come here in tiny boats across across dangerous seas. They face starvation and dehydration to walk through deserts where they can fry in the daytime and freeze at night.

They do this because they have faith in America’s willingness to extend the same hand of welcome that has welcomed immigrants since the 17th Century. And they sense in America the kind of stability that will allow them to build a good life if they simply work hard, follow some basic rules, and pay a fair share of taxes.

Many who came by American citizenship the easy way, by being born here, take it for granted. Apathy is so much easier than activism. But now we have seen, on January 6, 2021, that there is a kernel of resistance to the values that have made us who we are. And when a politician comes along who is willing to incite those who do not share democratic values, American democracy becomes as fragile as the government in any other country.

January 6, 2021 was a frightening day for America. And there may be more to come if we are not vigilant and firm.

If you love it, take care of it. Be a part of it. Vote. Follow the rules. And learn how to lose. No citizen gets her/his way every time.

And we should be glad for that. It may be democracy’s wisest and best feature.

Ten & One-Half

THE TWELVE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS DONALD TRUMP HAS TAUGHT ME (Thing No. 10):

Civics education is important.

Of course, I knew this already. I have been interested in government and politics since I became aware in my childhood. The subject has interested me since I first heard President Truman’s voice coming out of our Philco console radio and my sister explained to me that he was the president, that he was in charge of the country, and that he told everybody what to do. Her childish understanding was insufficient for me and I have made a lifetime study of politics.

But not everyone has been paying attention. Some citizens never learned much about their government beyond a few patriotic platitudes. They have been too easily duped by pundits, preachers, and playboys into using their votes to gain admission to see lousy snake oil promotions.

One of the beauties of majority rule is that most people can’t be fooled. But now and then, the snake oil candidate slips through the screen and becomes a governor, a senator, or even a president. I recall that Minnesota elected a wrestler for governor. Texas once elected a hillbilly singer to the governor’s office.

Sometimes the promoters grow into the office and surprise us by delivering a creditable performance, at least managing to preserve our most hallowed institutions. For example, Ronald Reagan.

And sometimes we get snake oil. Just snake oil. And slime.

Twelve & One-Half

THE TWELVE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS DONALD TRUMP HAS TAUGHT ME (Thing No. 12):

The dynamics of lying and public opinion.

There is a dynamic to the Big Lie that Donald Trump has used for years in his business and now uses in politics. It never bothers him to be caught in a lie. He doubles down, repeats it again and again, and turns the volume up.

It begins to sound normal to other people, at least it is no longer shocking. Then it begins to sound TRUE TO HIM. Now that he is telling the “truth”, he repeats it with more conviction and becomes more persuasive to those who have no firm roots in fact and reality, that is, the uneducated and uncritical.

Listen to his Sunday phone call to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. The more he repeats the lies, the more convinced he becomes that they are true. You can hear his conviction growing as the call drones on.

Trump’s genius is that he probably came up with this formulation independently without ever reading the literature analyzing the propaganda techniques of 20th Century authoritarianism. He never reads anything.

Fourteen & One-Half

There is an unbelievable scene outside the United States Capitol while the Congress meets inside to count the vote of the Electoral College. Our president rode by and stirred the crowd then retired to his safe space in White House. He had hoped to join them but, you know, bone spurs.

Comparing the 60s with Today: In The Facts

At the request of the editor, I pared this down to the number of words they could publish. I did all my own editing, so don’t blame The Facts for the barbs that are missing. I just felt that they didn’t add anything to what I was trying to communicate. So no more “laughably and contemptibly” inept DJT. Inept says it will enough.

The Facts has a brutal paywall Trump could be proud of. I don’t hold it against them. They are in one of the country’s toughest businesses right now and they have never been more important. So, here is a copy of my Word file. And if you don’t subscribe to The Facts, please do. They make it easy: Go This Way with your credit card. You will be glad you did.

My contribution to the Wednesday, November 25, edition:

I started out to compare today’s protests and politics with those of earlier decades. After attempting a list of particulars, I began to think more of the general trends. Leadership and media seemed to offer the two most prominent differences. With the passing of power back and forth between the parties over the decades, these trends have resulted in the spiraling descent of the Republican party, and our country under its leadership, to where we are today. 

Social media and cable news have changed the quality of reporting and allowed competing versions of political “reality” to develop for self-selecting audiences. We repeat our own version to other like-minded people through social media – the echo chamber effect. People in the 60s and 70s tuned in Walter Cronkite and whatever he said carried the weight of truth. If Cronkite caught a politician lying or taking personal benefit from public office, there were fraught political consequences. 

Legitimate journalists today have been assailed by some politicians and even referred to as enemies of the people by the sitting president. These attacks and his universe of “alternate facts” are repeated and amplified in the social media echo chamber. These systems of competing truths did not exist in the 60s.

Devotion to democracy and the expansion of the electorate was then – in spirit at least – universally blessed. These values have been challenged in the current alternate reality as niceties designed to relegate a once dominant class of citizens (older white males like me) to minority status. 

The movement of women and minorities into roles of power is judged in that alternate reality as the gift of affirmative action rather than the deserved result of their own hard work, intelligence and abilities. It’s hard on the ego to see the world becoming fairer as you, in turn, have to yield some of your own privilege.

We sometimes look at generational cohorts as meaningful units of analysis. My generation, bookended by the Greatest Generation on the older end and by the Baby Boomers on the other, is often overlooked. Those of us born just before the end of WW II are called the Silent Generation. The existential threats of our day were Vietnam and the nuclear arms race, both aspects of the Cold War. African Americans shared those threats and added to them the enduring cruelties resulting from our history of slavery.

The generations younger than the Boomers now face an even more complicated set of challenges, a whole battery of crises in fact, that should be keeping us all awake at night. Most of them are the result of an economy that has pushed consumption beyond the planet’s sustainable limits. Climate change, pandemic diseases, failing governments, human migration, the growth of terrorist organizations (foreign and domestic), wealth and income inequality, unmet infrastructure needs, and a government that is unwilling to meet the people’s needs are all on the list of realities that face young people now trying get educated and join the work force. On top of that, they have to deal with college debt far beyond anything I faced in my generation.

All of these problems can be addressed but they need the focus and work of governments here and abroad. They must lead people to commit to the hard work and sacrifice that can take us into new centuries with the expansion of democracy throughout the world. They must lead us to respect the planet and each other so that all of us can have the one thing we want most – an environment of peace and plenty for nurturing our children.

The other major difference that I see between the present decade and those of the 60s and 70s is our national political leadership. At the time, I could not see any redeeming qualities in Richard Nixon. The public would not tolerate lies from political leaders. Nixon spied, he lied, he connived and covered up. Yet he took his job seriously and he had the grace to resign rather than put the country through any more Watergate agony. And there were members of his party who had the strength of character to confront him with the truth of his situation and the nation’s needs.

President Trump, in my estimation, is inept and uninterested. He has no respect for the presidency or the constitution. And the Republicans in congress offer him no guidance or try to rein him in. I recognize that these points will be argued endlessly by his supporters. In defense of my position, I can only offer my years of study, witness and the close attention I have paid our country’s politics during my entire adult life.  

My hope for Generations X, Y, Z and Alpha, it is that we can instill in them, once again, a devotion to truth, to service and the restoration of a leading role in the world for the United States. Public service can be their gift to their fellow citizens, not a gateway to grift. I hope we can help them to see that running for political office is a high calling and that it should always be done with humility, generosity of spirit and a dedication to our deepest civic values. That was the inspiration my generation took from President Kennedy and Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. They will not find any such inspiration in the White House today.

We have come up short in many ways. But we can pass the torch to our youth with confidence in their ability and the strength of their character. I know some of them well in my family and in my church. Above all else this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for them.

Guest Column, The Facts, November 25, 2020, by the Lake Jackson Citizen